Messages

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SFML projects / Re: Game on Kickstarter 28 May!

« on: May 31, 2015, 11:07:38 pm »

Thanks for all the feedback and advice! Finally made a better video that illustrates our game a little better. Check it out on our Kickstarter page or on YouTube:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/147621009/luman

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SFML projects / Re: Game on Kickstarter 28 May!

« on: May 27, 2015, 01:02:22 pm »

Here it is, a cut-scene example!

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SFML projects / Re: Game on Kickstarter 28 May!

« on: May 27, 2015, 08:46:12 am »

Hi Ismod,

Thank you very much for your helpful feedback. The points you've made are quite fair and something definitely needs to be done about it ASAP. I've used your feedback, as well as others' to compile a new, more exciting video which will be uploaded soon. We're also planning on updating our video again a week into our campaign starting the 28th. I've added collectables, which gives you perks (and changes your light colour) such as an extra double jump and acceleration boost, and we've also added a new mechanic -- you will fall through platforms when Luman's light is switched off. We're rendering a cut-scene sample now as I type this which might also help getting people excited. (We're aiming for something like Super Meat Boy, where you have these funny little cuts between levels.) The aim of the game will be explained on the Kickstarter page through animated GIFs, etc. and we're working on a developer video too.

Our biggest concern ("Sub" pointed this out) is that we haven't really spent enough time building a fan-base. We're just going to have to see where it goes and try our best. I will post a link to our updated video and cut-scene example soon.

Thanks again for taking the time to write to us,


Regards,



Robert

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SFML projects / Re: Game on Kickstarter 28 May!

« on: May 26, 2015, 06:18:36 am »

How much are you guys going to be asking for? 

I'm sure I'm going to come off as a jerk, but I think the reality is that indie platformers are a dime a dozen nowadays, and you'd have to have something that looks pretty amazing for it to be successful on Kickstarter.  It's unfortunate and it defeats the purpose a bit, but you really need something that looks more or less complete, and you need an active following in order to have a successful kickstarter. 

I'd look at Moonman as an example.  Extremely professional art / animation, relatively popular dev blog (3k+ comments, 800k+ views), exposure from multiple news sites + staff pick on Kickstarter, and even that struggled to reach its modest goal.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's really cool what you've managed to build so far.  I suppose it all depends on the goal you set, but with no gameplay other than a character running around, and with the state the art / animation is currently in, it's going to be a rough road.   

No worries, you're not coming off as a jerk at all! We welcome negative feedback! We are taking on quite a challenge since gamedev is very very competitive. I suppose our video doesn't show much and we need to show our mechanic. Would you say our art is too plain and it doesn't seem like there's a lot going on?

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SFML projects / Re: Game on Kickstarter 28 May!

« on: May 26, 2015, 05:57:02 am »

It would also be nice if you added more gameplay footage, or if it's not implemented yet, say what is planned. In the video, all you're basically showing is running around. Especially if you plan to go on Kickstarter, you should give people a feeling what they can expect, and what makes your game special (I guess a mechanic associated with the light(bulb))

Thank you! Your advice is gold, we're working on it and will probably produce another video before our launch! 

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SFML projects / Re: Game on Kickstarter 28 May!

« on: May 26, 2015, 05:53:27 am »

But... you already have a thread for this project: http://en.sfml-dev.org/forums/index.php?topic=18047.0

There doesn't seem to be much information on why this is going on Kickstarter. Is it not finished? Why do you need Kickstarter investment?

About the thread, I apologise if I caused any inconvenience.  Our Kickstarter page (not active yet) has lots of information on the game and where it's going! We're asking for $20,000 (AUD). Thanks for the advice! We're on it!

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SFML projects / Game on Kickstarter 28 May!

« on: May 25, 2015, 05:09:31 pm »

Hey guys!

Check out this video on our SFML game, Luman. We'll be on Kickstarter the 28th of May.
Please back us if you like it.





Life&Dev Team!

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SFML projects / Re: Luman: a Life&Dev game!

« on: May 01, 2015, 06:49:47 am »

You could use LTBL2 for the dynamic lighting  (shameless self-promotion, but it might be helpful to your game).

The art looks nice! Are you using Spine or Spriter for the animations?

Thanks for the info, but I'm already halfway done with the dynamic lighting anyway. It's just a little bit of math. If I can't manage, I'll take a closer look at LTBL. The animations are sprite-based and made using Illustrator with After Effects. I would have loved programming a spine based system, it's just neat and compact, but we don't really have the time. Our animation files are about 20-40 frames each and they're quite high-res (we want to have zooming in the game), so the loading takes long at the moment. Will make use of multiprocessing which will speed things up a little.

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SFML projects / Re: Luman: a Life&Dev game!

« on: April 30, 2015, 02:42:52 pm »

Ah, thanks eXpl0it3r!

The gameplay is a medium-to-fast paced. We're adding dynamic-light effects soon (we have to, he's a light-bulb!) and the light will play a big role in the game. Light orbs (see concept attached) can be collected to increase your lumosity, which will give you some defense when hitting walls or being hit. There will also be powerups, for example red orbs will accelerate you in the direction you're moving while blue orbs will give you an additional air-jump, etc. Luman can also break, of course (he's fragile and made out of glass) and this will make the game particularly challenging since you have to avoid hitting walls while getting to your objective point as fast as possible.

The game will have a story and we're actually making cut-scenes for it too. The story is pretty basic and is about Luman trying to save his world (The Glowb) from the villainous Uncandescent: a broken light-bulb with a napoleon-complex causing havoc by breaking others and collecting their glass so that he can melt it down and build the largest bulb ever... the story will have a twist at the end but I'll keep it a secret for now! 

As of last week, we're working on the game full-time and we really hope we can make this game a lot of fun!

I really appreciate your interest in our game, check out our Twitter if you like: (twitter.com/LifeAndDevGames). We'll post most of our updates on there.


Regards,


Rob (Life&Dev Games)

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SFML projects / Re: Screenshot Thread

« on: April 30, 2015, 07:17:55 am »

Screenshots of our game called Luman!

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SFML projects / Re: Luman: a Life&Dev game!

« on: April 30, 2015, 07:14:05 am »

Here's some more screenshots:

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SFML projects / Luman: a Life&Dev game!

« on: April 30, 2015, 07:12:58 am »

Good day everyone! We're working on an SFML game called Luman! Please check out the video (link below) and tell us what you think. 

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SFML projects / Re: Enter the Unknown - Devlog

« on: March 24, 2015, 01:55:19 am »

True, solo projects do take a while but don't hesitate too much. The best way to learn in my opinion is to program your brains out and make mistakes! Doesn't matter how good you are, at least with game programming, you probably will have to redo a lot of things and waste a lot of time, but your efforts will eventually all pay off. Anyway, I wish you all the best!

Rob Moll (Life&Dev Games)

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SFML projects / Re: Enter the Unknown - Devlog

« on: March 22, 2015, 09:44:28 am »

Sounds really cool man! How long do you expect this project to take?

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SFML projects / We're working on a game: Luman!

« on: March 20, 2015, 02:09:17 pm »

G'day mates of the SFML community!


I'm working on a game, called Luman. It's a fast paced 2D-platformer about a fragile little light bulb called Luman. I will upload a demo once I've fixed some crazy bugs but if you want a glimpse, click on the YouTube link below. My friend is doing the animations and graphics while I'm in charge of the coding. There's a lot to look forward to: an intuitive level editor, dynamic lighting, breaking glass, heaps of death animations, a hilarious story with many cut-scenes and much more. We're planning to go on Kickstarter once we have enough to show. At this stage it looks like it will be about a month and a half away. My friend and I both work in retail and it sucks a lot, so we're trying to get out of there and do what we really love. I won't be sharing all of my code but I might share some of my animation and physics classes later if anyone is interested.

Thanks,


Rob Moll (Life&Dev Games)